The development of consumer electronics technology explores the convergence of traditional consumer electronics such as audio, video and personal communication products with the digital worlds of the personal computer. This kind of technology allows products to interact with each other and/or may incorporate many individual products into a compact and interactive unit. For example, one typical application of such technology is a set-top box. A set-top box is a device that uses a specialized computer which translates incoming digital signals into a form suitable for viewing on a standard television set. The source of the signals may be a digital satellite or terrestrial broadcast, a cable television channel or a video-on-demand program sent down a telephone line. In the Internet realm, a set-top box is essentially a specialized computer that can “talk” to the Internet. These products may be equipped with storage devices in the form of hard disc drives so that for example, users can order TV programs or movies from cable TV companies, store them on the drive, and then play back the programs or movies from the drive whenever it is convenient. Drives applied to consumer electronics generally require that an individual drive be designated to a unique host to avoid data such as video/music being stored on the drive in a way which compromises privacy.
The term hot-plug normally refers to a procedure involving plugging in or removal of a disc drive into or from a system with the power turned on. In particular, a hot-plug attack against a disc drive means that the drive is removed from a system after it is powered up and unlocked by the system, and is then plugged into another system while keeping the drive powered up during the procedure to maintain an unlocked mode of the drive. In this manner, all data stored on the disc drive can be copied to other drives or the drive can be used with another system until it is powered down.
The issue of hot-plug attack for disc drives is difficult to address because it generally occurs after a disc drive is unlocked and existing ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) standard security features cannot protect disc drives against such attacks.
However, hot-plug attacks may still take place successfully during the interval between Security Unlock commands. So, the unlock time should be set short enough to effectively prevent hot-plug attacks. This implies that the Security Unlock command should be issued quite frequently. Thus, much of the drives time is taken up in dealing with unlock procedure in the drive's normal operations.
The present invention may provide a solution to this and other problems, and may offer other advantages over the prior art.